I have had a couple requests for more detail on the router support that I built. I made it about 10 years ago for a project. There are commercial router supports for this Rockwell Super 900 but I could not find any. They were made in the 1950's.
This support is made from red oak and glued and screwed together. It is about 1 1/8 thick with 5/8" hole drilled for the motor shaft to fit in.
It is made in three pieces and the 2 piece curve was cut to match the Dewalt router motor that I have. The 2 bolts go through the two halves to hold the router in place.
The piece in the back is used to stabilize the router support with wing nuts.
You can adjust the height by using adjustment on the radial arm saw or fine adjustments on the router motor.
Since it is on a radial arm saw you can fix the piece and move the router or as I am doing fix the router and move the piece.
I have been working on practice curved front drawers for the last two days. Not too many hours, since I had to take time out for football.
I had to get the sequence of steps correct to make them come out the way I wanted. I have to make four that are convex front and two that are concave front. The two that are concave I will work on next. So this is about the convex drawer fronts.
After cutting out the billet at 4" x 8 1/2" x 1 3/4" I made a cut on the table saw 1 1/4" from each end to create the flat face at either end. Then I band sawed the front curve.
Then I cleaned up the saw marks with a spokeshave, so the face was nice and smooth so I could run the router bearing guide over the face to make the 1/4" round over bead.
Here I am using the router table to put the 1/4" round over on the top and bottom of the drawer front. The picture is of a finished drawer front so the top was not cut out when I did the routing.
Then I needed to put a 1/4" round over on the sides. This can not be done with the above router set up because the bearing on the router would follow the 1/4 round over that is already on the top and bottom and ruin the corners.
So I needed a second router step to cut the round over on the sides of the drawer but run the bearing from the side. So I mounted are router from above. It worked pretty good but I still need to put blocks in front and back to keep it from tearing out.
Then I cut out the top 1/4" lip with a router and my box with the curve cut out.
Then dado 5/32" off of the sides to create the drawer lip. Then it is all done. There is still final fitting to be done to get it flush But it looks pretty good. Lots of steps.
Now to fit it into the drawer opening.
Looks like I know the steps to make the four convex fronts! I made a block front desk about 10 years ago and I don't remember it being this complex.
I am going to make the four convex drawer fronts now. But I won't do final fitting until I sand an glue up the case.
Today I decided to prepare a practice curved drawer front. I used some 8/4 African Mahogany from about 10 years ago which is not as expensive as the Genuine Mahogany. I laid out the pattern on a piece of 8 1/2 inch by 4 inch by 1 3/4 inch block. This is the size required for each drawer front.
You can see the layout lines here and I have already started to cut out the shape
The corners on the front of the drawer were cut out with a table saw 1 1/4 inch across the front and 3/4 of an inch deep.
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I used a dado on the table saw to cut 5/32 off of the sides to create the lip. An then I used the band saw to cut the curve on the front.
I also used the band saw to cut out the 3/4 curve in the back of the drawer front. I did not have to remove this material. If I leave it then my drawer bottoms are easier to make, since they would be flat across. If I remove the material in the back like in the picture below, then all the drawer bottoms would be curved. I makes it a little more work.
To put the 1/4 inch curve on the inside of the drawer front I use a jig and the router with a rubbing collar to cut out the curve.
It worked ok, but I am not satisfied with the curve that it cut. Here I am test fitting the drawer front. You can see that there is a slight gap on the right side of the curve.
So I try it on another of the drawer positions. Here it fits perfect. So it looks like I am going to have to fiddle with the drawer shaping.
Tomorrow I will make another test drawer front and see it I can get it to fit flush on the other drawers. I also need to clean it up and add a 1/4 inch round over molding around the drawer front.
I made some decisions about how I want to install the drawer runners. Some times the drawer runners are mortised into the back of the case. This makes the glue-up of the case more complicated since all of these little runners have to be positioned front and back as you are gluing and assembling the case. There are six drawers in this dressing table and that makes for a lot of drawer runners and dividers. So I decided to make a frame which contains all the mortise and tenon joinery and then can be slipped into the case after it has been assembled.
Looking down into case you can see the side runner on the left clamped into place. There needs to be this style of runner all the way around the case, two times. Once for the first row of drawers and then again for the second row.
Lots of little pieces to cut and mortise and tenon together.
I have to put mortises in all of the front and rear rails
With the front and rear rails mortised, I need to put matching tenons on all of the runners. I am using my tenoning jig here on the table saw.
Now all it have to do is fit all this together.
All assembled ready to install
I fit these frames into the case.
Everything seems to fit, so I think the case work is complete. After I glue up the case I will slip the drawer frames in from the top and bottom. I will glue and nail them in place.
Now I should sand the case pieces before I glue it up. I hate to sand but it is easier to do before the piece is assembled.
I also need to look into making the curved drawer fronts to match the curves on the case front. I'll look into that tomorrow. No rush into sanding!
Today I installed the vertical drawer dividers. There are two and they have 1/2 inch dovetails on each end. In the video I say that I am going to make them 1/2 inch deep but I changed my mind and made them 5/8 inch deep. It just seemed better to me.
So here I am lining them up, and then scribe the knife line around the dovetail
The back part of the dovetail will be removed leaving 5/8 inch before I install the vertical rail. This will match the depth of the dovetail.
Here I am cutting out the center drawer blade when the two pieces intersect. I am cutting out 5/8 inch notch. In the vertical rail I cut out a notch of 1 1/8 inch so when they go together they are flush. The vertical divider is 1 3/4 inches deep.
Now I am cutting out the dovetail on the top drawer blade.
This one is installed. Looks like a good fit.
Got the second one installed. And they are both perpendicular to the drawer blades.
Now the next step is to install the drawer runners. I am starting to layout all of the little pieces that I need.
Here is today's video:
The next step after cleaning up the apron is to make the two drawer blades and dovetail them to the case. The drawer blades are 3/4 inch thick stock and the 2 1/2 width that matches the apron size. I used the apron to trace the pattern on to both blades. The top drawer blade uses a flat dovetail which will be hidden once the top is installed. You can see the dovetail pattern on the end of the top blade.
Sawing out the dovetail pattern
All done with the top blade dovetails. Just two saw cuts.
Now to put the matching dovetail in the case top. Using my marking knife to mark out where the dovetail should be, making sure that it is square to the case. 7/8 inch dovetail in the 1 3/4 leg.
Sawing and then chopping out the dovetail
Now to work on the center drawer blade. I measured the length and added 1/2 dovetail to both ends and then centered it on the case. I clamped it in place making sure it is level. 3 3/4 inches top and bottom. Then I used my marking knife to mark where the dovetails should be cut in the case sides.
Now I fit the center drawer blade into the sides after cutting out the dovetails in the side and the joinery is done.
Now I can bandsaw the shapes that I traced from the apron. I want these to match perfect. So after sawing I put the three pieces together and used my spokeshaves and files to match the patterns. So there you have it. They look pretty good and I am reasonably certain that the blades and the apron match. This is important since the drawer fronts will have a lip which rests on the blades and there should not be a gap.
The next step is to make and install the vertical drawer dividers. There are two and they are dovetailed to the top blade and the apron.
I was off to another fall meeting of the SAPFM today, this time to the Great Lakes Chapter in Detroit MI. Had a great meeting but did not get to work in the shop today.
So yesterday, I worked on the sides by cutting the ogee shape on the sides of the cabinet and then removed the saw mark with files.
They look good so I am done with that small task.
So now I have to clean up the saw marks and shape the apron to the lines that I laid out prior to band sawing. I use the curved bottom spokeshave and the flat bottom spokesave.
I doesn't take too much time and the mahogany is easy to work.
I use a card scraper in the end to remove the last few bumps and scratches.
This takes care of the face of the apron and now I turn my attention to the bottom using the same tools.
All finished for now. Looking pretty good. I will use this as a template for the next two drawer blades. The top and center blades have to match these apron curves exactly. In the next post I'll dovetail the blades into the leg posts and cut out the matching curves.
